Through A Mirror Glass
by TheChickenKatsu
Summary: .: An Inuyasha Tale :..: The Second World Stories :.A new cast of faces along with the classic characters to retell this narrative of a fuedel time.
1. When All Is Nothing

_**.--+--.**_

Thoughts of time since passed lingered in the mind of the child who lay limply on the floor. She gazed into the dancing reds and ambers of the meager fire that sat contained within the dirt floor dip in the midst of the room. The light of flames ignited the wooden walls that formed the child's room within The Western Castle with illuminate hues. Her wounds wrapped tight, body embraced in the silken cloth of a blanket, no pain could trace its fingers along her flesh; but blackened thoughts did crawl inside the shadows of the room. Refracted in optics hued as the sea, the flames that begged for fodder before her did not take their proper reflection, but did change. One lick a man, one spark a sword, a battle replayed upon her consciousness.

---

Atsuko was her name. Wisps of smooth and ashen white hair streamed to just below the shoulders, adorned were the ends with paths of crimson. This mane did well disguise that she had no ears of the human kind, but laying downward faced and propped an inch back from the temples were the twin ears of a cat. Her mother had been the heir to the seat of power in the tribe of the eastern neko-youkai clan; her father an human warlord who had slain his way into the heart of a demon woman.

The little hanyou, the result of their forbidden union, had never questioned why she appeared different in the eyes of the pure-breeds of her clan. The blood that her mother had given to her upon birth deemed her worthy, did it not? A young child of so few experiences could not contemplate the contrast between the loving looks gifted upon her by her mother and the eyes of her clan that held contempt. It was soon that the tribe would come to see that bastard child and traitor mother had to die.

They had come, the had defiled, and they had dragged her mother to the streets by the strands of her hair. Swords were drawn. Blood wept from the soon mother's battered body, each drop drunken in by the thirsty soil. The child kept herself hidden in the faces of the crowd. The lady's lips called out tales of comfort meant to sooth the child; blood swirled with saliva made her tongue incompetent. The young one melted with the longing invoked by the sound of her mothers voice, and she believed they would be saved.

---

In the darkness of the present, Atsuko slit threw the flesh of her lower lip with demonic fangs. It was nowhere near the punishment she deserved as to have listened to these whispered words. Her mother had been a body abused and beaten, surronded by the feral calls of comrades who clasped eagerly awaiting steel. And yet she had believed.

---

Taken upon the last gurgled will of her mother, she had raced madly from the open streets of their village unto the shelter of the surrounding forest. Some men had relayed after her, leaving slashes in her kimono clothe that soon were filled with blood. The obsidian darkness that the sun and trees in conjunction cast at the forest's edge lent her sanctuary from he pursuers. Through the gaps in the dense woodland in which she hid, she could scarcely make out the silhouette of her mother; knees dug into the dirt, back hunched, head hung low, crippled into surrender. A potent blade was held above her head. Atsuko wrenched her eyes away, the tears that had gathered were release of their bonds of courage's control, spilling down pallid cheeks as the stroke of the sword ruptured a mother's flesh and bone.

Atsuko treked for days through the seemingly never ending woodland, not daring to look back upon the trail of blood that led to her mothers death bed. As she traveled, the horror repeated before her eyes until her world was hazed and tear wells left dry.

Her journey was concluded on the morning tide of the third day. Her body trembled with fatigue, causing the knees to give up their carriage beneath her. Her mind to bend as her head met with the tendrils of grass that waved in the wind. Upward her eyes dared to drift, but her vision of the splintered golden light pouring through the canopy was barricaded. There, a face carrying twin amber eyes.

"Mother!" A young boys voice hailed from the figure, his earsplitting cry for help carried across the glade. He was answered by the downy whisper of cloth, striding ever closer. Beside the child appeared an angelic looking human woman, draped in numerous layers of a kimono of the finest silk. "What is it, Inuyasha?"

"I...I found this girl..."

Adrift, an ebony hair tinged Atsuko's cheek when the Izayoi-Naishinno kneeled beside her. Eyes the shade of an ancient oak passed from the blood that trailed the corner of the girl child's lips to the wound just under the ribcage on the right side. Though the wound was powdered with clotting blood, a cough from the girl caused the abdomen to gush scarlet liquid abundantly to the ground.

"My god...what has happened to her?"

"Is she going to be alright?" The small boy inquired innocently, tugging at his mother's sleeve,

"Not if we leave her alone." The woman bent down, grasping Atsuko tightly, and pulling her close. The little neko instinctively drove incisive claws deeply into the layers of silken kimono the woman wore. At the noblewoman's stride and the young boy's following, the three were once again cast from the lighted clearing into the benighted forest. A whimper of anguish escaped Atsuko when the woman's hand grazed her mangled side "Shhh...it will be alright." She hummed. Atsuko was incapable of retaining her clawed grip upon the woman's attire; she lay herself to resignation and allowed the embrace to support her weight. Now incapable of retaining consciousness, Atsuko's eyes wished themselves to darkness. Her world evanesced into consoling night.

_---_

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Written by Kiirii

Inspired by Kachi, Hotaru and Dessykins


	2. Chapter 2

Removed for the reader's protection -_-;; trust me


	3. Children of the Dark

_How Long_

_How long has it been since I stood watching_

_Watching a world_

_A friend_

_A life_

_A love_

_Leave me_

_Without sweet whispers of good bye_

_Could you not see the blood that rests on the grave of a forgotten heart_

_A fool to believe _

_What I have let myself become_

_The weakness of a human soul_

_Never Again_

A final prayer of forgiveness left her trembling lips. Her optics of a powder blue let flow a solem silken tear. The droplet coursed its path down her sunken cheeks, yet it's hollow sadness failed to equal the ocean that lay within those eyes. It was a scene so familiar: in the corners of her room a fallen soul is left alone, only to listen to the echo of dark serenity.

The feudal castle had been left barren. A quivering flame of sunset through a window's open glance failed to reach the girl, leaving the shadows to grace upon her skin. A fatigue of one undead, Atsuko forced herself up from a crouch upon the floor. Rickety upon what seemed to be a changing gravity, she walked only to the doorway. Her eyes declined. She held the moment of sweet innocence in the tomb that once she had called home. Her lulling breath enveloped the halls, the only sound.

The flickering of the ebbing sun gave light to the shafts of steel connected to the twin blades at her side, the weapon steadied by the grip of her hand. She brought the long pike at level to be faced. She traced the kanji of her own name with her finger tips, engraved upon the steel sixteen years passed by a mother long left dead.

Breaking the halted silence, she thrust her hand onto the blade; her gaze was left unflinching. Retracting the hand, Atsuko captured her reflection as flesh and other tissues trickled down the face of steel. This manifestation she saw captured in the blade, is this what she must become to rid herself of a hatred that resided within her heart? Her optics were veined by trails of burnished scarlet, left from the sleepless nights when loneliness could be her only companion. Her skin was pallid, as if the sun had taken back it's promised glow and banished away the light. This face of internal decay left a scar upon her thoughts she fled the place where precious memories lay. Upon the candescence of a fading sun, there was only one wish.

**.--+--.**

_Men and women, their playing joy, Kamati ball was to enjoy in the evenings leisure. Kicking the ball to one another, a seeming family. But with envy he watches, a child with hope upon his eyes. He runs to them. His presence brings a darkened glance, the shadows stretching further. A man discards of the ball, the air takes a vein of anger. The boy pursues the ball, but as he grasps it he turns to find the crowd disbursed. He drops the small sphere, and sadness clouds the twilight. Comforting warmth he finds in his mothers arms. The red ball rolls lonesome to a young girl's feet as she stands to the side. She bends and clasps it close. Though a confidence she maintains, the mother's tears are finally given break as she embraces her son. The girl child steps forward, her mess of ash and scarlet hair flow with the sunset's wind. The embrace is broken, the boy turns. His glance meets hers. She holds out the Kamati ball._

_A tender smile upon her lips _

**.--+--.**

The falling sakura predict that the one that walks beneath will meet with fate this blooden night. Her weapon a faithful companion at her side; a dark castle spits miasma from atop the trees as it strides into Atsuko's vision. Revenge trickles through the air, a rain that only she can she. Somewhere near, a funeral pyre burns for a priestess fooled. Somewhere near, a body clad in red hangs by an arrow sent from a lover's bow.

**.--+--.**

_A girl of thirteen summers stands beneath the shade of an aged tree. Her heart is fleeting. An intoxicating emotion floods her being, and she begs it to let her drown. With every glance given from his amber gaze, could she be falling through fire? But no! She seems to hold her head steady. She can not let herself be taken over by such foolishness. But is it truly all so foolish? Her answer is cold; even the dreamer is considered strong when her heart is kept shut. But no! A spectre so gentle cannot be of any harm. A feeling that seems to lift you upon an angels breath cannot undo your strength. Then her eyes are brought swift to open. _

_I love him_

**.--+--.**

Within the castle gates, the strike and crash of a long pike blade stayed in time with Atsuko's elevated pulse. A whip, a slash, a stroke, all failed to graze the royal shade of cloth that enveloped the weaver of the spider's web. "Pathetic child," The speech grated from the throat Naraku held, an echo on the courtyard walls, "You are not unlike the other hanyou. Fragile, and also stupid. But you are the weaker, and this night no dog shall come bounding to save you," his smirk arose. "You can trust that in the end I sent him to hell..." The pupils within his eyes retracted as the mutilated shape of his talon arm formed beneath the silken kimono sheath; it released itself and grappled Atsuko in mid air.

"...to be with dear Lady Kikyou..."

**.--+--.**

_Though a year has past, this girl the has yet to speak her inner truths to the boy of twin amber eyes. In shyness, she seems to wish to spend her days if not in his embrace, than in his presence. But on the morning's sky, a light shines down upon her alone; just a figure in the forests depths. Each step she takes a subtle hope in searching. Where has he gone today? Ever lately he seems to fall upon a strange trance and in a glance he is gone. She enters a grove; the sun sends its glow to splatter the pattern of the leaves upon the earth. To her front, a solitary woman prays in kneeling stance. Her human eyes sit beneath a cape of sable hair, and rapidly she turns to meet the gaze of the newcomer. As the woman stands, a priestess garb is let flow in a lift of the winds._

**.--+--.**

The monstrous appendage, taking Atsuko's right arm in its grip, pulled upon her as a child with a ragged doll. The earth met her upon his hand's release, the grime digging into and weaving between the threads of the yukata now rough and frayed. A jutting ivory, the fragmented bone of the arm was apparent as her skin retreated and shattered veins let flow their burgundy swell. Air battled blood to reach her lungs as she inhaled, yet she apprehended her weapon with the other limb left unmaimed. A tear of affliction dared to rush the barriers of her eyes; it was of a curdled and scarlet shade.

"...bastard..."

The growl emitted from her lips as the liquid took the incline from cheek to chin. A body corroding, a soul digressing, she stood on legs that were soon to falter. A call of rage from her throat propelled the forward thrust toward the spider's heart.

**.--+--.**

_The sun slowly falls upon another years time, and the girl finds herself alone again. Her heart still aches for fulfillment, for a chance to burst forth from any fears, to abandon the thought of rejection. She wants to simply seep the truth that lies within to him, to hold a satisfaction in her love. The woodlet falls away as if upon a pair of saintly wings she travels quickly through the forest's core. Upon the swift pace, she comes to a river wide; its water shone of blood in the flare of a scarlet sunset's end. But suddenly, a step she takes to flee from the hiding place of tall reeds. Upon the water's glass, a sole vessel comes to the shore. A young man draped of crimson cloth steps onto the bank. The young girl's eyes are yet to pull away, she stares transfixed from the opposing shore. The priestess she had met upon a forest grove that year ago came to stride out of the boat following the boy. The woman's feet refused to except the sturdiness of the earth beneath. The miko falls, into the arms of a boy with twin amber eyes._

**.--+--.**

The attack did come to hit. Desolate became the demon's optics, the center blackness dilated to cover all. A duet of darkness stared down at Atsuko; Naraku smiled. The haori top was discarded, the flesh about his torso where the pike had taken its mark began to boil, skin erupting into liaisons that spit an ebony puss. Then, tissue rose up to devour the blade. Flesh as lips formed and ran from below the demon's collarbone to above the navel. Opening, smacking, drawing the long pike into the space within, Atsuko relinquished her grasp before she could be pulled into the throbbing abyss. She dropped to cringe upon the ground, fingers grasped at the soil in a desperate effort to pull away.

"Oh this fated blade..." From beneath the veil of his flesh, Naraku produced the pike. The tip came as the first, rupturing from the center of his palm; the grooves of the enscripted name filling with charcoal blood. No pain came to be depicted upon the spider's visage, the smile was carved in place. The whole of the weapon was soon delivered into his palm, "...there is room for one more dead."

In the echoes of the nightengale's call, her silent smile was left unnoticed. It was in the wind's sweet whispers, but to every other in the world her blood was never shed. The sakura blossom was a lonesome witness. Inside the dark castle's gates a body was left stoic, pale eyes kept open to watch the passage of a morning's birth. The spider's web was unbroken, and blood stained the silver veins. A girl made into a feudal times crucifixion, the long pike left to hold her sadness to the earth.

The blade run through her breast.

_

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Written by Kiirii

Inspired by Kachi, Hotaru and Lady Dessy


	4. Death of an Ebony Rose

_I Have Waited For You_

_As You Have Waited For Me_

_I Closed My Eyes To A Love You Held_

_That Could Not Be Kept For Me_

_For She Is Beautiful_

_For She Is Gentle_

_For She Kind_

_For She Is Everything Unto Your Heart_

_But I Am Not_

_For I Am Young_

_For I Am Brash _

_For I Am Strong_

_For I Am The Reckless Shadow In The Darkness Of You Mind_

_I Have Waited For You_

_As You Have Waited For Me_

_Where She Left You Broken On A Hollow Tree_

_**..--+--..**_

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Written by Kiirii

Inspired by Kachi, Hotaru and Desperado


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